I'm making the switch.

greg1993

I'm finally making the switch from hell to Apple. I just have a few questions. I'm going to get a 1Ghz eMac with the combo drive.



1. Where is the best place to buy as far as resellers are concerned. MacMall, MacConnection??? I could use some of the free stuff that they throw in (albeit after a rebate) like a new printer.



2. It's only gonna have 128 meg out of the box, so I wanna push that up to about 640 meg. Are there any recomendations on where to get the best deal on memory upgrades?



Thanks in Advance

agent69

1. I personally like to buy from Apple, even though they charge sales tax. When I got my eMac, I took advantage of the free shipping so that it would even out a little bit.



2. I would recommend updating to 1GB of RAM, if possible, as RAM is somewhat cheap. I use Crucial.

ast3r3x

640 --> 1GB you probably won't tell the speed difference unless you are a more hardcore user, so keep that in mind. Using Safari, iTunes, AIM (or iChat), Mail, and Word, then you really don't need more then 640. If you are photoshoping even 640 would be sufficient but 1gb will help nicely



I don't know how old you are but if you are or know any college students that are PC users I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you asked to use their name and get the student discount. That will help in price from the AppleStore and plus free shipping is great!

pscates

I've always bought my RAM from www.thechipmerchant.com



Have for YEARS now (8 or so?) and have never had a single problem: bought and installed them in a Quadra 610, Power Mac 7500, Power Mac 8100, Sawtooth G4, 800MHz Quicksilver G4, iMac DV, 900MHz iBook, 300 Tangerine iBook, 800MHz SuperDrive iMac...and will soon be buying a 512MB chip from them for my PowerBook.



Lifetime warranty and the whole bit. Never a single problem, so I continue to give them my money.

ac7860

Get your eMac from apple and try to weasel your way into a student discount, might save you money towards the RAM you want 8).



Check out this link for the best price on RAM

http://techbargains.pricegrabber.com...2770896be549af

progmac

Gosh, I'd buy an eMac refurb. They are only $529 for an 800mhz for god sakes! Granted, you would need to upgrade the ram, but that is CHEAP.



Oh the place to get this is in the "Special Deals" section of apple's store website.

greg1993

From what I understand, the refurbs are a cd rom only. If I take that route is there a cost effective aftermarket upgrade for a cd-rw or dvd-r?

dblegl

Quote:

Originally posted by ast3r3x

640 --> 1GB you probably won't tell the speed difference unless you are a more hardcore user, so keep that in mind. Using Safari, iTunes, AIM (or iChat), Mail, and Word, then you really don't need more then 640. If you are photoshoping even 640 would be sufficient but 1gb will help nicely



I don't know how old you are but if you are or know any college students that are PC users I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you asked to use their name and get the student discount. That will help in price from the AppleStore and plus free shipping is great!

How would you register the computer and get your warranty coverage if its in another persons name?I have a stepdaughter in college and she could get me a powerbook but I would want it in my name so if I have any problems I can get it fixed.

greg1993

I'mnot really worried about the edu. discount. My girlfriend is going back to college in January, but I don't feel like waiting that long to get a couple bucks off.

placebo

Not another Greg! (Just kidding!)



Anyway, I'd recommend a G4 tower if you could get one. If not, the G4 iBook is a fine machine.